The Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Their Main Features

The emergence of a new class of financial assets - cryptocurrencies - has led to the emergence of resources for the exchange and purchase / sale of digital money, since traditional exchanges have not yet recognized them. To this end, the first cryptocurrency exchange was created in 2010. At that time, Bitcoin was worth $ 0.5, and its capitalization barely reached $ 1 million. However, the further growth of BTC and the widespread adoption of blockchain technology forced the world to look at the crypto industry differently. This served as a powerful impetus for the emergence and development of new exchanges for virtual currencies.

Choosing from a huge variety, users are looking for the best exchange for cryptocurrencies, and many factors are evaluated. Everyone chooses what he needs. Someone needs a lot of assets, someone low commissions and a simple interface. In this article, you will find a brief overview of the sites in demand for working with this type of asset.

Coinbase

Coinbase is a popular American exchange. It was launched in the summer of 2012, when only a few people knew about cryptocurrencies, and the price of bitcoin was only $ 10. The co-founder and CEO of the exchange is American entrepreneur Brian Armstrong, who in 2017 entered the TOP 10 most influential businessmen in the world under the age of 40.

Today, Coinbase is deservedly included in the list of leading exchanges, has a solid trading volume and high capitalization. The number of users exceeds 56 million people, and cryptocurrency trading is available to residents of 103 countries. The service supports 25 digital currencies, including the USDC stablecoin. Also, work with fiat is available on the exchange: the US dollar, the euro and the British pound.

The mission of the Coinbase exchange, as stated on their official website, is to create an open financial system for the whole world.

The company relies on working exclusively in the legal field and has already received a license to work in most US states, including New York, it is very difficult to obtain a document for work in which:

23 types of digital coins.
The rates charged for all operations under $200 are as follows: $ 0.99 - $ 2.99 - for operations from $ 0 to $ 200; for over $ 200, a fixed interest rate comes into play. Its size depends on the payment method.
Free mobile and online wallet. The advantage of this wallet is that transactions can be made off-blockchain.
You can pay funds that can be deposited and withdrawn using a bank card, transfer and a range of payment systems. SEPA transfers are available for EU residents.
Two-factor authentication. All website traffic is encrypted using the SSL cryptographic protocol.
All wallets keys are protected by AES-256 encryption. Only 2% of her clients' cryptocurrency funds are stored online, and they are insured in case of loss.
Android and iOS app.

Binance

Binance is a Chinese company, and therefore the official site on the Binance exchange supports multiple languages. Binance is a digital asset exchange service. Basically, it is an online platform that allows people to buy cryptocurrencies with bitcoins.

Learning to trade on Binance will help you understand the cryptocurrency game and will give you the opportunity to trade almost any coin that exists on the market.

The most important quality of the best cryptocurrency trading platforms is their reputation. The reviews on Binance are amazingly good as it is very easy to use and most importantly, secure!

In addition, unlike some other exchanges, Binance offers the ability to buy and sell a truly staggering amount of cryptocurrencies, so on this platform you will most likely find the coins you are looking for. Many exchanges offer no more than 20 coins or so, there are hundreds of them on Binance:

740 different crypto and fiat pairs, including own token BNB.
Binance offers competitive trading fees (commissions): 0.1% on each side of the trade, or 0.075% if you are using your Binance tokens (BNB).
Trust Wallet mobile application.
Bank transfer, debit/credit cards, various P2P payment channels.
The exchange launched CryptoSafe Alliance (CSA). This initiative will bring together exchanges, blockchain protocols, cybersecurity experts, and regulatory compliance companies. It is the first comprehensive threat monitoring and protection tool in a decentralized data exchange environment.
A free app is available in Google Play Store or the App Store.

Kraken

The Kraken platform launched in 2011. She almost immediately won the trust of users from all over the world. The creator of Kraken, Jesse Powell, realizing the growing prospects of digital currency and the rapid development of blockchain technology, set out to develop a platform for currency transfers that are geographically and financially unlimited. And he succeeded! The crypto exchange is adapted for corporate clients of all sizes, as well as individual speculators of different levels.

The beta version of the site was tested in 2013. In the same year, it was officially opened to customers. The listing of the exchange is annually replenished with popular cryptocurrencies. But the management also does not move away from legislative amendments prohibiting the anonymity of digital currency, which proves the reliability of the site.

Kraken opens up wide trading opportunities for speculators. Here you will find that trading futures, indices and leveraging can be much more convenient and safer. At your disposal are many tools, functions that optimize analysis and metabolic processes:

8 tokens are available for.
Transactions under 50,000 units of a particular currency are subject to a commission of 0.16% for the seller and 0.26% for the buyer. For sums over 50,000 units, commissions are reduced to 0.14% and 0.24% respectively.
No crypto wallet is offered on the site.
Crypto wallets and money transfers via bank transfer. Deposit/withdrawal via bank cards is not available.
The exchange offers users two-factor authentication, PGP encryption, and global settings lock, which prevents any account changes within a certain period of time.
Kraken Pro and Kraken Futures applications.

Bittrex

Founded in 2014, Bittrex is one of the world's best cryptocurrency exchanges. The project is based in Seattle, USA. The daily trading volume is around $ 20,000,000. The company was founded by Bill Shiharu, Richie Leigh, Rami Kawach and Ryan Gentz. In general, the Bittrex exchange has a good reputation and has not undergone any hacking attempts. This is understandable, since two business partners previously worked as security professionals at Microsoft.

Bittrex has several markets that form cryptocurrency pairs. Here you can trade in BTC, ETH, USDT, and there are also pairs to the dollar. The exchange offers a large number of Bitcoin trading pairs - including all major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Litecoin, Ethereum. And also such promising virtual currencies are available as Chainlink, Tezos, Hedera Hashgraph.

Special attention should be paid to the appearance in the Bitrix cryptoexchange review: the interface is very simple, but it has significant differences from other exchanges. A significant advantage is the convenience of working with the chart, as well as the presence of stop-limit orders:

250+ trading pairs are available.
Topping up your euro account is available via SEPA credit transfer, international bank transfer, bank card. Fiat funds withdrawal is possible to a bank account using an international bank transfer, and for euros, a SEPA credit transfer is supported. The withdrawal commission depends on the chosen currency: in bitcoin, it is 0.0005 BTC, in Ethereum - 0.00600000 ETH. The site has a fixed trading fee of 0.25% of the total value of the order.
No crypto wallet.
Bank transfers, credit/debit cards.
Two-factor authentication (2FA), IP check, which requires an email confirmation of entry from a new IP-address, IP whitelists, Cold storage for 80%-90% assets.
There are two apps for Android and iOS respectively: Bittrex Global and Bittrex.

BitMex

Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange or BitMEX is a trading platform for experienced crypto traders that allows you to buy and sell contracts for cryptocurrencies (not coins themselves) in combination with margin trading (leveraged trading). Now, BitMEX is positioned as a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange and is the largest and most diverse in terms of the number of derivatives.

Over the years, BitMEX has proven itself to be one of the most secure platforms - it has never been hacked by hackers until now.

BitMEX is an exchange for experienced traders, and before starting real trading it is better to practice on a demo account. Another feature of BitMEX is a fully responsive interface that you can customize for yourself - enable / disable windows, move and resize them. The side panel is separately configurable - by clicking on the settings button, you can move it to the left side or remove it altogether:

55 trading pairs.
BitMEX does not charge any fees for deposits or withdrawals. When withdrawing BTC, a minimum Bitcoin Network commission is applied; commissions for takers are 0.075% of the total order value, while makers are paid an additional 0.025% for each trade.
Crypto BitMEX wallet.
Beyond virtual currencies, BitMEX does not accept any other deposits.
Funds are stored in cold wallets; Two-factor authentication; Registration via SMS notifications; Multi-signature wallets for transactions; Email communications are encrypted using PGP encryption.
BitMEX Mobile launched in September 2020.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. The most popular is the BTC \ USD currency pair (more than half of the turnover). The exchange has large turnovers and a wide range of cryptocurrencies.

Users who trade on this exchange can use both digital and fiat funds. However, in most cases, it is cryptocurrency that is used, since you do not need to pay significant fees for transactions with it. When working with cryptocurrency, commission costs are very small.

The management of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange pays special attention to security. In this regard, various methods have been introduced to protect user accounts.

The exchange has many orders. Trading on the exchange is much easier than on the others. There are many tools available here that, if used correctly, will help you increase your capital.

Over 140 coins and 300 trading pairs.
No additional payments for deposits and withdrawals in digital coins. When you deposit USD, you will have to pay a commission of 0.1%, but not less than $ 20;Minimum fee for withdrawing fiat money is $ 60; With the minimum currency turnover per month, the trading fee is 0.1% for the maker and 0.2% for the taker.
Users are offered three wallets to choose from - Exchange Wallet, Margin Wallet, and Financing Wallet.
In addition to digital currencies, bank transfers and card withdrawals are available to users.
Only 0.5% of crypto assets are kept online to support daily transactions. The rest of the coins are kept in cold wallets out of the reach of hackers. For these wallets to become available, manual authorization of several members of the management team is required.

Localbitcoins

The project was registered in 2012, during which time it managed to quickly become popular among users. At the moment, the site operates in more than 200 states. You can use at least 100 fiat money to trade Bitcoins. To start using the platform's capabilities, you need to register.

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer decentralized exchange that brings together a buyer and seller of bitcoins. A feature of the exchange is the ability to buy bitcoin offline, for this, offers will be selected that are as close to you as possible geographically.

When working with a platform, it is important to realize that you conduct transactions with a counterparty directly, and not through the exchange, so always analyze his profile for good reviews, the number of transactions, the date of account registration, the number of people who blocked the trader and, conversely, added to the white list:

The service does not charge a commission from the buyer. For sellers, there is a set commission of 1% on each sale.
Bank transfers, banking cards, electronic systems.
The security of the transaction is ensured by the escrow method, which has proven to be highly effective; User accounts are protected by two-factor authentication.

Poloniex

Poloniex is one of the oldest exchanges by the standards of the cryptocurrency industry. It opened in January 2014 and is still working. Poloniex provides access to a wide range of altcoins. It is one of the largest exchanges in terms of daily bitcoin trading volume.

There are 4 types of markets traded on the exchange: BTC, ETH, XMR and USDT, over 60 altcoins and over 100 currency pairs. Poloniex is one of the largest exchanges in terms of trading volume. This means that the trader can easily close any position. It is easy and convenient to make trading operations on Polonisk. An order is created in 3 clicks.

The disadvantage of the exchange is the lack of a mobile application, although there is a mobile version of the site:

100+ currency pairs.
All deposits are allowed without any additional charges; The withdrawal fee is fixed, and it depends on the type of the currency; commissions are from 0 to 0.25%. Maker commission is from 0% to 0.15%; taker commission is from 0.1% to 0.25%. The higher is the volume of completed transactions in one month, the lower is the commission for all subsequently completed transactions.
Own Wallet.
Replenishment of an account with a bank card or withdrawal to a card are not available for users of some countries.
The administration highly recommends adding two-factor authentication to your account.
Mobile application.

Kucoin

It is a very young exchange, but due to the support of most of the popular altcoins and good exchange rates, it has become popular since the fall of 2017. The KuCoin exchange, although it does not belong to the leaders yet, but the clients respond well to it. She is backed by a team with vast experience in the crypto market. Already in the reviews, many people call her one of the best among competitors.

Registration on the KuCoin exchange is not much different from the registration process on other exchanges and regular sites (you can register by Email and mobile phone number).

KuCoin Shares tokens (KCS) are the internal cryptocurrency of the KuCoin exchange, which can be bought by every registered user of the exchange and receive passive income from this (the KuCoin Shares cryptocurrency is constantly growing in value, as the number of active traders on this exchange is steadily increasing, which in turn buy these tokens to reduce trading commissions) and a number of other bonuses and advantages (like on the Binance exchange, internal tokens can be used to reduce the commission for trading by 2 times to 0.05% of the transaction):

200+ coins and 450+ trading pairs.
All deposits are free on the site, and there is a fixed fee for withdrawals; KuCoin offers a flat commission of 0.10%, which is less than the industry average.
Inner site crypto wallet.
A variety of payment methods supported by P2P fiat services.
The exchange offers you the option to set up two-factor authentication by Google Authenticator.
Mobile application.

Bitpanda

Bitpanda was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Austria (Vienna). Now it is a popular trading platform and wallet for both experienced cryptocurrency users and newbies. Allows you to store and exchange over thirty digital assets. At the moment, BitPanda's management is building work with the most popular cryptocurrencies, adding coins to their listing very, very carefully.

It is worth noting that BitPanda's management is working intensively to improve its platform, so SegWit wallets have been introduced, which in the future will significantly reduce the size of transaction fees on the Bitcoin network.

Bitpanda focuses on two things - security and ease of use. The application is organized in an intuitive interface, a minimum number of actions is required from the user in order to perform operations.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and 30+ digital assets.
The trading commission of the service depends on the type of currency and the nature of the transaction. When buying bitcoins, you pay 1.49%, when selling - 1.29%.
Commission for replenishment and withdrawal is fixed for each coin and is debited from the account.
Bitpanda crypto wallet.
You can make a deposit either by bank transfer, credit cards or electronic payment systems.
Bitpanda refers to systems that independently manage user wallet keys. Besides, the following security measures are offered: fund cold storage session control. Every login attempt from a new device requires two-factor authentication confirmation, authentication and validation via email.

Coinmama

This is one of the most successful cryptocurrency exchanges on the market, which offers the user a profitable purchase of digital coins using a bank card and fast transactions. Coinmama is considered one of the most reliable digital coin services, and its well-established positive reputation is beyond doubt among experienced traders.

Although the platform is oriented towards the international market, the interface of the official website has been translated exclusively into English. It should be noted that Coinmama is not an exchange familiar to traders in the classical sense of the word. Unlike their competitors, users can buy and sell cryptocurrency here as in an exchanger without using the usual terminal with an order book, TradingView chart and other familiar functionality. Also, there is no built-in wallet on the site, and clients' assets are transferred to the specified address. This approach is safer, because clients' funds will not be affected in any way in the event of a hack:

The website sells Bitcoin, Ethereum. Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Qtum, Ripple, Ethereum Classic, Cardano, Tezos and EOS.
The use of credit or debit cards implies a service charge of 5%. Besides, the charges 3.90% for buying coins and 0.9% for selling these.
No Wallet.
Credit/debit cards and bank transfers; It supports SEPA and SWIFT payments.
Coinmama is a reputable company with a secure site using Trust Guard and Comodo technologies. Both services have confirmed that 256-bit SSL encryption is actively used on pages containing personal information.
Mobile app.

Paxful

Paxful cryptocurrency exchange is a peer-to-peer platform that mediates bitcoin buyers and sellers. Most of all, Paxful attracts with a convenient and intuitive interface, as well as high speed of operations and transparent terms of transactions. The company supports over 300 payment methods, including gift cards.

The service is suitable for both experienced traders and beginners. The advantage is that a variety of guides and training materials are provided for novice traders. Also on the service page, you can find the project's blog, which contains not only the latest news of the organization, but also useful and informative articles on financial topics, news about cryptocurrency, as well as educational materials.

Storing coins on the platform is unacceptable - they are immediately sent to the client's crypto wallet address.

Bitcoin and Tether as assets.
Commissions are applied for crypto selling:0.5% for bank transfers; 1% for bank cards and e-payments; 3-5% for gift cards; No commission is charged for buying cybercurrencies; Paxful will charge a transfer fee for sending funds to an external wallet. $ 0 - $ 9.99 = 0.0001 BTC$ 10 - $ 19.99 = 0.0002 BTC;More than $ 20 = 0.0005 BTC.
The Paxful Wallet App makes it easy to store and manage coins with your mobile wallet.
More than 300 ways to buy coins, including bank transfer, credit and debit cards, PayPal, Western Union, and even Amazon, iTunes or Steam gift cards.
The security of the system is ensured by two-factor authentication, depositing and the obligatory verification procedure when working with large amounts.
Paxful Wallet for Android and iOS.

HitBTC

The HitBTC exchange is a multicurrency platform with a beautiful design and an attractive discount system for large traders.

The official founder of the exchange is entrepreneur Dave Merrill. In 2013, he brought together a team of experienced developers, financial experts and crypto enthusiasts to open his first crypto business. By the way, there is no public information about the full composition of the HitBTC team.

Currently, the HitBTC exchange supports a large number of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency pairs, due to which it is popular with traders. The HitBTC community consists of users from over 150 countries around the world. The service has a large audience of subscribers on social networks:

800 currency pairs.
No commissions for deposits and a fixed commission for withdrawals depending on the coin; HitBTC uses a multi-level trading fee calculation system. The more a user trades, the lower his commission will be.
No crypto wallet.
The HitBTC exchange can be replenished exclusively with digital currency.
The platform provides 2-factor authentication, high-end encryption technology and cold storage of funds.
No application.

In 2021, popular exchanges make it possible not only to trade, but also to make money by storing cryptocurrency in their accounts, the so-called staking (like a deposit in banks). You hold a certain cryptocurrency for a certain time and receive dividends. In addition, the exchanges have a direct exchange between P2P users, the issuance of loans (credits), the internal cryptocurrency of the exchange (example: Binance BNB) issued for certain activities (promotions, contests) and much more.

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